A New Home
by firevixen
Summary: A mysterious girl falls through a well in America and ends up in fuedal Japan. Stuck in the bottom of the well in a life-threatening condition, she meets who else but Inuyasha and co. They save her life and befriend her, but this girl is full of secrets.


Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi does. *starts crying* Though *brightening up* I do own Tiffany.  
  
***** Present time, somewhere in Washington State, America  
  
Tiffany wiped the sweat off her forehead, struggling to keep her eyes open and her legs moving. Her long dark brown hair was not helping with the heat. Holding in a yawn, she turned her odd purple eyes to look through the trees seperating her and the highway, to make sure she was still heading the right direction. 'I can't stop walking now!' she thought desperately, 'that was a narrow escape earlier, and if I don't get far enough away, I'll probably wake up in a police station, or worse... home'. She shook her head roughly to rid herself of those thougts. "Stop being a pessimist Tiff." she chided herself. Her eyes widened, "And stop talking to yourself, damnit, you're not going crazy yet!" Stifling yet another yawn, she increased her pace.  
  
"Ughh...!" she cried as she collapsed with exhaustion, and sadly admitted to herself that it was time to set up camp. 'Camp? Huh, yeah right, more like a tarp.' Giving a small sigh, she changed her direction and headed into the forest, looking for some trees to string her tarp up between. It wasn't long before she found the perfect ones, oddly though, they were positioned right next to a well. 'A well? In the middle of an uninhabited forest, what the hell? Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, can they.' Sighing again, she started to set up camp.   
  
Getting the tarp, rope, and stakes out of her backpack, she took a closer look at the trees, 'Shit, those branches are pretty damn high! Oh well, wait... well! I'll stand on that to reach the branches!' giving a smug smile at her resourcefulness, Tiffany climbed up onto the rim of the well, and turned to face the tree. Only... it wasn't the tree she saw.  
  
"Tiffany!", she jumped at the voice, and the jump combined with seeing her fathers face grinning wickedly at her, was enough to cause her to lose her balance. With a gasp, she fell backwards. Letting out a cry of pain as her head hit the rim on the other side of the well, her body crumpled and fell down into it. The last thing she saw before passing out was her fathers shocked and angry face staring down at her as she was enveloped in a blinding white light.  
  
***** The Fuedal Era, Japan.  
  
The first thing that returned was the pain. "Ughh..." Tiffany made the unfortunate mistake of opening her eyes, and ended up looking straight into the afternoon sun. "Ughhh.....", she groaned again. Her whole body was throbbing with pain, though it was her head that hurt worse. She tried to move, and the resulting jolt in her head was enough to restore her speech, "Damn, damn, damn, damn, DAMN!", she screamed at herself.   
  
She laid like that for a while, letting her strength return, and when she could move again, she sat up. Reaching a hand up behind her, she touched the back of her head, and immediately wished she hadn't. "Ahhhhhh..... DAMN!" she screamed, the pain causing her to collapse, which was unfortunate because her head then hit the ground, and caused another great jolt, which almost made her pass out again.  
  
"GOD DAMNIT!", she screamed, loud enough to wake the dead. The back of head was not good, her hair had been one bloody, sticky, mat. The worst thing was, it was still bleeding. Sitting up again, she cautiosly opened her eyes, and this time, thankfully, she wasn't greeted by the full glare of the sun. She then brought her hand up for examination (the one she had touched her head with) and gasped, it was coated in fresh blood.   
  
Letting out another stream of curse words, Tiffany evaluated her situation 'Okay, so I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, in the bottom of a well, in what's probably a life-threatening situation. Huh, how funny, I'm gonna die in a well.' Suddenly the meaning of what she just said dawned on her and her eyes went wide 'I-I'm still in the well! Father didn't get me! But... how the hell did I escape?' She then remembered the blinding white light. "What the hell was that?" she wondered out loud.  
  
All of a sudden she froze, straining her ears, had she just heard... voices? As whoever it was drew nearer, their voices became louder. 'Maybe they can help me!' half her mind shouted, while the other half said, 'Or, maybe their just a couple of cops, Tiff' The moment she could hear what they were saying, her heart sank, and she let out a loud gasp. They were speaking in some different language! 'Oh DAMN, just my luck!', she thought furiously, 'Where the hell am I?!' In resignation, Tiffany let herself fall back against the side of the well, forgetting for a moment about her injury. The pain was intense.  
  
"Ughhhh..." She groaned loader then, and immediately bit her lip. Had they just heart her? Before she had time to wonder, a rather frightening head leaned over to look down into the well, growling. She barely had time to register the fangs, ears, hair, and claws before fainting from pain.  
  
***** The next morning.  
  
Tiffany woke to hear voices all around her, talking in a hushed whisper. 'Not that they have to, I can't understand a damn thing they say. Well, it ain't gonna do me no good to pertend I'm asleep'. She opened her eyes slowly, and got the fright of her life as she saw a big pair of aquamarine ones staring back at her. "Ahhhhhhhh..." They both screamed at the same time, and jumped away from eachother. She gasped as she saw that the eyes belonged to a tiny child, but it was like no child she'd ever seen before, it had a fox feet and a bushy tail. And yet, she found herself unafraid of it, and smiled. It had been a long time since been this close to a young child. 'Not since I last saw my little brother...', she stopped that train of thought, if she thought about him for long, she would inevitably end up sobbing in front of a group of strangers who didn't even speak English.  
  
'Wait' Tiffany thought, looking around at the group of people who were all staring at her now, 'maybe one of them does!' Feeling desperate (and slightly delirious), she looked at them, and asked, "Do... you... speak... English?" She was about to laugh at herself for her primitive attempts when suddenly one of the girls gasped.  
  
"English? You speak English?" the girl asked.  
  
"Yes!" Tiffany practically shouted. "Yes, I do!"  
  
The two girls smiled at eachother, both feeling very excited at their accomplishment, when all of a sudden, the boy from the well who had given her a fright earlier stepped forward and began talking to the girl who knew English. Tiffany was no expert, but it sounded like he was demanding answers. The girl glared at him for a moment before snapping an answer at him and turning back to Tiffany.  
  
"What's your..." she paused for a moment, thinking, "name?" she asked.  
  
"I'm Tiffany, and who are you?" The other girl thought for a second, interpreting in her mind what had just been said, before smiling.  
  
"I'm Kagome." Tiffany smiled too.  
  
"Well, Kagome, I want to thank all of you for saving my life." Kagome turned to the others and interpreted for them all she had just said before turning back to her.  
  
"Are you from... America?" Kagome asked, eyes betraying her curiosity.   
  
"Yep," she replied, yet seeing the puzzlement on Kagomes face, she restated, "Yes, I am."   
  
Kagome spoke to her companions before getting a very confused look on her face and looking at Tiffany, "If you're from America, then how did you get here?" she asked. Tiffany stiffened, her mind working quickly, she would either have to make something up, or else unveil her whole story to perfect strangers. Her choice was obvious.  
  
"I... hit my head on a branch and fell into a well." 'Hell, atleast that's partly true, I mean, I did fall into a well.' still feeling guilty, she tried to reassure herself, 'Well, what was I supposed to tell them?! That my father terrifies me and I was so scared I fell into the well? Hell, that would lead to some awkward questions' "And then I woke up here." That got Tiffany thinking, how exactly had she gotten here? She hadn't cared earlier, as she was merely happy at escaping her father.  
  
Kagome frowned, but then said "Can I speak to you in... private?" Tiffany nodded. Suddenly the white-haired boy stepped forward again and began interrogating Kagome. She glared, but answered his questions. Tiffany had already gotten out of bed when Kagome had suggested talking, and for the first time, acknowledged the boys other... features. Instead of being afraid, she had the sudden impulse to reach out and touch his ears. Taking full advantage of her spot behind the boy, she reached up behind him and felt one of them.   
  
The moment her finger had touched his ear, he gave a dog-like yelp and whirled around, growling. Once again though, she found herself unafraid, and unable to stop herself, began giggling. She noticed the people in the room with her were laughing too.   
  
Kagome suddenly stepped forward, and, addressing her said, "Oh! How rude of me! I didn't... introduce the others!" Turning slightly pink, she began making introductions. "Tiffany, this is Inuyasha," the boy with the ears, "Miroku," a very handsome boy who gave her an oddly seductive smile, "Sango," a girl who gave Tiffany a smile, "Kirara" a peculiar cat with two tails, who was in Sango's arms, "Kaede," she indicated an old woman with an eyepatch over one eye, "and Shippou." the small boy with the tail gave her the cutest smile ever, and her eyes bagan to water. Unable to resist, she reached into her pocked and pulled out a chocolate bar, which she gave to the little boy. His eyes lit up, and he took it from her, smiling gleefully.  
  
All of a sudden, Tiffany felt a tiny bite on her neck, and without thinking, she brought her hand up and slapped it down on the spot. To her surprise, she herd a small grunt coming from whatever bit her and she gasped. "Oh yes, how could I have forgotten? This is Myouga! Inuyasha's little flea friend." Kagome said, "Now, about that talk, how would you like to go to the... bath?" Tiffany must have given her an odd look, because Kagome hurried on, "In a nearby... lake." she smiled, and Tiffany nodded.  
  
Kagome grinned and went to a massive backpack, where she pulled out two bathing suits and handed one to her. Tiff's eyes widened slightly when she noticed it was a bikini, but kept her smile. As she and Kagome walked out the door, she caught Miroku's eye, and noticed he had a mischevious glint in them. Thinking nothing of it, she followed Kagome to the lake.  
  
For some reason, Tiffany was feeling reluctant to wear the bikini in front of Kagome, though she could not remember why, and so ignored the feeling. She remembered why after she and Kagome had gotten in, "Oh my!" Kagome said, and she swam over to Tiffany. Kagome was looking at her arms, "Where did you get all these... bruises!" Tiffany flinched, there, on her forearms, were bruises that were nearly perfect handprints of her father's hands where he had grabbed her not too long ago, when he caught her trying to run away. Tiffany hadn't noticed them, and was surprised that they were still black-and-blue. Kagome must've noticed they were from someone grabbing her, and looked at Tiffany with concern.  
  
"Th-they're nothing, Kagome." she said, submerging her arms underwater.  
  
Kagome sighed and then talked, "Well, anyway, I wanted to talk to you about you being here. You see, I don't know how a well in America brought you here, but I know you must be dieing to get back to your family and friends. You see, you were not only transported to Japan, you were also transported 500 years in the past." Tiffany gasped, and Kagome gave a sad smile.   
  
"I-I can't go back." Kagome got a confused look and her eyes clearly asked, why? "I know that I can't stay with you, but I..." She took a deep breath and, determined, went on in a slightly stronger voice, "...I would rather go to hell than go back where I came from." Kagome gasped again, and her eyes got even wider than they were. "Listen, I can be out of your way in a few days, if you give me that long to gather some supplies, though. But know this, I will literally kill myself before you get me in that well again."  
  
Kagome seemed to recover her voice, "I...we... of course we won't just thow you out!" she yelled, clearly apalled at the idea. Tiffany's eyes began to water, and the tears that she had been holding back ever since she had run away finally broke through, and she collapsed on Kagome's shoulder, sobbing.  
  
All of a sudden there was a sound from the bushes, and Kagome got an evil grin. Diving under, she grabbed a rock from the bottom, and threw it hard into the bushes. To Tiffany's surprise (and discomfort) she heard a gasp of pain from the bushes, and two seconds later, Miroku emerged, the picture of calm. "Dinners ready, ladies." he said in Japenese to Kagome, with another smile. 'What the hell was he doing in those bushes? He couldn't have understood anything?' And, like she had done it every day of her life, she rose from the lake and walked over to her clothes. Miroku gasped, and his eyes were wide as saucers. 'Huh, you'd think he'd never seen a girl in a bathing suit before.'   
  
***** Two weeks later  
  
Kagome and Sango had been teaching Tiffany Japanese, and she was learning pretty quickly. Though she could tell Kagome wondered what would make her prefer death to her previous life, she thankfully did not say anything, to the others. They were in the middle of one of their lessons when they were interrupted by an extremely suave voice.  
  
"Hello ladies, mind if I join you?" Before Kagome or Sango could object, Miroku sat down next to them. Though the other two women knew how dangerous he was, Tiffany had unfortunately not been warned (She didn't really think anything of what had happened in the lake, after all, she had been in her bathing suit). And so, it came as an extreme suprise what she suddenly felt a hand caressing her butt.  
  
"EEP!" she screamed, and turned toward Miroku. Oh how she wanted to slap that smile of his face, and slap it off she did. Miroku was lying on the ground a second later, a bright red handprint coming on his cheek, listening to her tell him off in English. For some reason, it made it all the more fun that he didn't know what she was calling him, but to sum it up, the words would've made a sailor (and Kagome, as she understood most of them) blush.  
  
After Miroku had gone back inside (smiling and cradling his face), they were interrupted yet again, this time by Inuyasha.  
  
"Oi, wench!" he said, walking up to stand next to Kagome, who was silently fuming, "Sensed any shards lately? We're overdue for another hunt."  
  
"I told you this morning Inuyasha," Kagome said, grinding her teeth, "I haven't sensed any and there's been no rumors! Wait... Inuyasha there's a Youkai approaching fast!" Tiffany jumped to her feet, Kagome and Sango had told her about their mission and about the world she was in now. And though she would tell nobody, it really was frightening, her first Youkai encounter! 'Though I doubt I'll be much use to them, I don't have a weapon. Unless I use... NO! I won't resort to THAT! That's what made my father hate me in the first place, I don't want my new friends to hate me too.'   
  
All of a sudden, a Youkai was striding towards Kaedes hut, stopping just short. But this wasn't just any demon. 'He looks like Inuyasha! Why, they look like brothers!'  
  
"Sesshoumaru..." Inuyasha growled. "If you've come for Tetsusaiga again, then I'm afraid you're in for another disappointment."  
  
"One out of two Inuyasha, tsk tsk, you're losing you're touch. Yes I have come for the Tetsusaiga, but no, I will not be disappointed this time." Sesshoumaru then spotted Tiffany, "I see, brother, that you have mingled with yet another human, though who could expect any better of you. This one looks unusual though, hmmm..." he fixed his cold, hard gaze on her, and she could not help but realize that, yes, her brown hair and purple eyes must look pretty unusual to most Japanese people.  
  
Inuyasha growled, tearing Sesshoumaru's eyes away from Tiffany, "That's not the point, prepare yourself for a fight!" And that said, Inuyasha pulled out the transformed Tetsusaiga and charged at his brother. Tiffany's eyes were wide as they fought, both were extremely good fighters. She winced at every blow Inuyasha took, and he seemed to be taking quite a few. In fact, she realized with horror, he seems to be losing! She watched with wide eyes as Sesshoumaru inflicted blow after blow upon him. Inuyasha was bleeding profusely from many wounds, some of them in vital areas. Tiffany saw what happened next in slow motion. Inuyasha collapsed onto the ground, still severely bleeding, and Sesshoumaru stepped up to give the final blow. Sango threw her giant boomerang, but it just didn't seem to be getting there fast enough, Inuyasha was going to be killed!   
  
Tiffany knew what she had to do, she didn't want to, but she had no other choice, and without thinking twice, she reached out her hand and concentrated. All of a sudden everyone gasped, Sesshoumaru was suspended in midair, claws inches from Inuyasha, and he was frozen there. Sesshoumaru himself appeared shaken, his normally serene face was looking very surprised at the moment. Tiffany concentrated harder and moved him just slightly... so that he was directly in the path of the giant boomerang.   
  
It hit Sesshoumaru, giving him a nasty gash and knocking him backwards as Tiffany let go. Struggling to his feet, he looked straight at her, and she knew that he knew it had been her. "How... very interesting." he said thoughtfully before vanishing. Everyone was still shocked at what had happened, and, taking advantage of this moment, Tiffany lifted Inuyasha with her mind and brought him inside. "Y-you should tend to his wounds," she said, tears already leaking out of her eyes.   
  
She then ran, as fast as she could, to the lake. Tiffany collapsed onto a rock, where she let out all her tears. She sat there crying for a while, wondering where she would go when they kicked her out. 'While, looks like it's back on the road again, Tiff.' She would have to go back there for her things, she really didn't want to, but she couldn't leave without supplies. Making her way glumly back to the hut, she stopped at the front door and knocked. The door opened, and she gasped at what she saw.  
  
Instead of glaring or frightened faces, she was greeted by the same smiling ones that she had been seeing for a week now. Sango opened the door and ushered her in, and Tiffany was immediately confronted by a truckload of questions. "Hold on! Hold on, one at a time now!" she had to suppress a giggle as they all asked her a different question, at the same time, but then sighed sadly as she realized she could not answer one without explaining the whole story.   
  
"I-I'll start at the beginning..." And so, she told her story, of how her father had always been a drunk, how he would come home and beat their mother, how he wasted all their money on beer. How that had always been tolerable when they had stayed in one place because she always had her friends, and they took her mind off things at home. Then they had moved, to a place where being new was the worst thing imaginable, where she had become a social outcast, the recieving point of their ridicule, how she had had no friends. Yet things had still been... tolerable, until her drunk of a father (who was evil even when not drunk), had gone off the edge and blown all their money at a casino. Her mother had protested, and Tiffany had been forced to watch as he strangled her to death.   
  
That was when things went from horrible to worse for her, as her father discovered her powers. From then on, he hated her, he beat her regularly, threatened her, and nearly killed her once. She began making plans to run away, and had already tried several times before she finally made it. And how even away from home, when people discovered her secret, she was rejected. Tiffany took a deep breath then, "Well, that's my story, have all your questions been answered?", she said.  
  
Once everyone nodded, she stood up and headed toward her backpack.  
  
"What are you doing?" Sango asked. Tiffany stopped and turned to look at them.  
  
"Well, I can't ask you to let me stay now." She said.  
  
Sango's eyes widened a bit, but then she said, "What are you talking about, of course you're staying. Did you think we would just kick you out?"  
  
"But... But now that you know, don't you hate me?"  
  
Shippou spoke up for the first time that evening, "Why would we hate you, that was cool!", he jumped on her shoulder and she smiled.  
  
"So... you'll let me stay, even though I can...", she levitated Shippou into the air.  
  
"WOW! I'm a flying fox!" he said gleefully, and everyone laughed.  
  
"You're staying, end of story, you could be useful during battle with that.", said a gruff voice from the other side of the room. They all turned to see Inuyasha sitting up on the futon.  
  
"Inuyasha!" Kagome chided, rushing to him and pushing him back down, "You're supposed to be resting!"  
  
"How can I with all of you bickering over there?!" he retorted. Kagome sighed and went back to where she was sitting. Tiffany was still staring at Inuyasha, and for a moment. when their eyes met, she thought she say... understanding in them, something she had gotten from nobody else. It was... like he knew exactly what she had been through.  
  
"I-I can stay..." she mumbled, more to herself then to anyone else. She turned away from them, to hide the joyful tears that were treking down her cheeks. She had ran away only weeks ago, and yet she had already found a new family, new friends, and new home.  
  
EPILOGUE  
  
'I think I'm really starting to like it here' Tiffany thought, levitating her sunglasses to her.   
  
"Tiffany!" she whirled around just in time to recongnise the red-brown furball that flung itself into her face. 'Man, one candybar and he gets attached!'   
  
"Hello, Shippou." she said, prying him off her face.  
  
"You said you had a surprise for me!" He gave her one of his irresistable smiles and her heart melted.   
  
"Hai, hai, I did." She smiled, "Now wait here while I go in and get it." He grinned and she fought to suppress a giggle.   
  
The moment she walked into the hut, though, her ears were assaulted by Inuyasha and Kagome, arguing again.   
  
"Inuyasha! Pleeeeeeaaaaaaaase."  
  
"No Kagome, you can't go home yet, we still have shards to collect!" With that, Kagome's begging look turned into a determined (and angry) one.  
  
"Inuyasha! I have a math test tomorrow and I have to be there to take it!" Inuyasha stepped in between her and the door, bad move.  
  
"SIT! SIT! SIT! SIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Tiffany barely caught the doomed look on Inuyasha's face before he plummeted to the ground. Kagome ran out the door, hoping to get a head start. Shaking her head, she went to her backpack. Digging around in it, she thought, 'Now lets see, where is it!'  
  
"Aha!" she cried with a triumphant grin. She pulled out a small case, and opened it up. 'Yes, they're all in there!' She zipped the case back up and went back out to the still-grinning Shippou.  
  
She beckoned him closer and unzipped the case to show him the contents. He got a puzzled look on his face and so she explained.  
  
"It's called a gameboy, here, let me show you how it works." She grapped one of the games from the pack and put it in the gameboy, then she turned it on. Tiffany smiled as Shippou's face lit up. "This is a little device that you can play games on! This game's called Super Mario Land." She showed him how to play and then gave it to him. She smiled, 'He looks so cute'. His tiny face was screwed up in concentration as he played.  
  
"Shippou, if anyone asks you where I am, tell them I went for a walk."  
  
"OK" he said absentmindedly. Tiffany stood up and stretched, before walking out into the village. She passed by alot of people. some of which waved. It was when she came to a group of little kids that she stopped.  
  
There was an older boy there who had taken one of the girls dolls, and he was holding it up in the air, taunting them with it.  
  
"Come and get it. Jump. Oh, not high enough." he was teasing. A little girl, obviously the one he had taken the doll from, was crying as she jumped to try and grab it back. Tiffany was shaking with fury by now. 'How dare he' Before she could do anything, though, another older kid (about her age) spotted it too and walked up to the bully.  
  
"Stop that, give it back to her." he said  
  
The bully turned to look at him.   
  
"And what if I don't wanna, gonna do somethin' about it" the bully challenged. The boy was clearly younger than the bully (who was like eighteen), but he didn't back down. He opened his mouth to say something, but Tiffany said something first.  
  
"I will!" she said, flinging her hand out. The doll zoomed straight into her hand, and the bully was flung backward. "Taunting little girls?! Is that your idea of fun?!" 'That damn asshole, I'll teach him. She flung her hand out to do something to him, but then she remembered the doll was still in it. Her expression softened, and she walked over to the crying little girl, who was now staring at her in awe.  
  
"This belongs to you right." she said, not noticing as the bully ran off. She smiled, and the little girl smiled too.  
  
"Thank you" the girl said, taking the doll and running back to her friends. Tiffany stood up and turned around to go. She was startled when she came face to face with the boy who had stood up to the bully.  
  
"Hi," he said, "my names Echiro. That was really cool, what you did there." Tiffany blushed slightly.   
  
"Thanks, my names Tiffany" They both smiled at eachother.  
  
"Would you like to go for a walk with me, Tiffany?" he said.  
  
"Sure." 'Oh yeah, I think I'm definitely starting to like it here.' 


End file.
